DP Challenge 2008

Robust economic growth is essential in promoting human rights and social development.  As such, Drishtipat announced the beginning of the Drishtipat Challenge 2008 in February.   Through this business development Challenge, now entering its second year, Drishtipat seeks to create employment opportunities by funding promising small businesses.

Lessons from the Women’s Policy debacle

As part of a programme marking the International Women’s Day, Bangladesh’s caretaker government announced a National Women Development Policy on 8 March (see here).  The announced policy was condemned by a section of the country’s Muslim clerics as un-Islamic.  Specifically, the clerics objected to any possible change to the inheritance laws such that women could get equal inheritance rights as men.  On 11 March, the government announced that it had no intention of passing any law that is ‘anti-Islam’ (see here).  On 27 March, the government formed a 20-member committee to identify inconsistencies in the policy as per Islamic rules and suggest steps (see here). While the committee deliberated, the clerical opposition continued. Following the Friday prayers on 11 April, violent protests broke out in Dhaka’s Baitul Mukarram area (see here).  On 17 April, the committee recommended that the government amends its policy, replacing any commitment to equality between the sexes with ‘just rights’ for women (see here). 

This blog is committed to equal rights – irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or faith – of all citizens.  As such, it supports, without any reservation, equal property and inheritance rights for men and women.  But this post is not about the commitment to these rights.  Nor is it about theological discussions about what Islam has to say on the matter.  Rather, it is about some lessons to be drawn from the developments described in the first paragraph.

দুই বন্ধু, দুটি চলচ্চিত্র আর কিছু চিন্তা

অল্প যে কয়েকটি বাংলা উপন্যাস পড়েছি তার মধ্যে অন্যতম হল সুনীল গঙ্গোপাধ্যায়ের ‘পূর্ব পশ্চিম’ ।  উপন্যাসের শুরু গত শতাব্দীর ৩০এর দশকে, কলকাতায়, কলেজের ছাত্র দুই বন্ধু – মামুন ও প্রতাপ – কে নিয়ে ।  ঐতিহাসিক কারনে দেশ ভাগ হওয়ার পর দুই বন্ধুও আলাদা হয়ে যান ।  তাদের পরিবারের ওপর পরে রাজনৈতিক ও আর্থসামাজিক পরিবর্তনের প্রভাব ।  বহু চড়াই উতরাই পার হয়ে কাহিনীর শেষ হয় ১৯৮০র দশকের মাঝামাঝি, যখন মামুন ও প্রতাপের জীবন ফুরিয়ে এসেছে, আর পরের প্রজন্মের চরিত্ররা ঢাকা ও কলকাতা ছেড়ে পারি দিয়েছেন বিলেত ও মার্কিন মুল্লুকে ।  সেদিন একটি ছবি দেখতে দেখতে এই উপন্যাসটির কথা মনে হচ্ছিল ।

(দেখুন না বলা কথায়)

Thoughts on food prices

According to recent news reports, perhaps a sliver of relief is on the way for the price of rice.  Apparently there is a bumper boro crop this year (see here). This, plus the expected arrival of imported rice, has apparently caused the price rises to cease, at least for now.  This is certainly welcome news. 

But there are still serious grounds for worry.  According to the Financial Times, rice prices rose more than 10 per cent last week as rice importing countries (including Bangladesh) tried to secure supplies from the handful of exporters still selling the grain in the international market.  The price jump came as leading exporting countries including Vietnam, India, China and Egypt, banned foreign sales.

(More at UV)

Do you trust this man to ensure your food security?

   

রেডিওতে খবর দিসে, দেশে কোন অভাব নাই

লাইল্লার ঘরে কাইল্লার ঘরে আনন্দের আর সীমা নাই

ঘইশার মা কয় খইশার মারে, আমরা কিসু বুঝি না,

ও না না আমরা কিসু বুঝি না

-          দলছুট

This man has announced: “There is no crisis of food in the country. Only the price has gone up”.

Now we hear a lot about this NSC from lots of quarters. Every now and then some “expert” with no conception of deshi reality or the NSC comes on television. “Expert” then proceeds to talk about how much good this NSC will bring and mouths such catchy phrases as “total security”, “economic security”, “disaster management” and “food security”. Let us see what the above statement reflects about our CAS’s knowledge of “food security”.

Are you secure enough?

Funny how we notice different things at different times.  I visited Kolkata in January 2000.  It was after I had finished masters and had little care in the world.  After 6 weeks in conservative Dhaka, I enjoyed the nightlife around Park Street and New Market.  And of course there were the bookshops.  But political economy of defence – this i didn’t care about. 

I was in Kolkata eight years later this February, not for holiday, but nor was political economy why I made the trip.  But hey, it’s hard to stop thinking about that stuff. 

For Rev Martin Luther King

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: “Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word” (unquote).

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.”

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message — of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

The full speach is here.  These words, spoken 41 yeats ago, are still true, in America, in the Middle East, in Bangladesh, everywhere. 

A year after the speech, and 40 years ago today, Dr King was assassinated.  As Rage Against the Machine sing: They murdered King after he spoke out on Vietnam, he turned the power to the have nots, then came the shot.

But there is another song: Free at last, they took your life, but they could not take your pride.

Pride by U2

Which leads to the other mystery: Dr King was assassinated in the evening, why does U2 sing about a shot ringing out in the early morning April 4?